Best Option for Unlocked (vzw) Galaxy Note 3

[jetguat]

My VzW Droid Bionic died about two weeks ago, when it inadvertently took a swim with me. Duh!
The wait for the Note 3 is difficult. I have an upgrade available, but I'm more likely to pay full retail price than a subsidized price so I can keep my contract with unlimited data. My question is where folks would recommend or expect an unlocked N3 to appear? Best Buy? Amazon? Not sure that all N3 models are the same since each North American carrier has different LTE bands, the models (e.g. the LTE radios) are likely to be different, even though the 2g3g radio are likely controllable via software.

I can pay full price at a VzW store or online, but its likely to come pre-bloated from VzW. Hoping for an VzW compatible phone without the bloat that I can just "activate" on my existing account.

Perhaps some GS4 or Note 2 users already did similar things in the past.

Thanks for the 4-1-1

 

[karsdroid]

My VzW Droid Bionic died about two weeks ago, when it inadvertently took a swim with me. Duh!
The wait for the Note 3 is difficult. I have an upgrade available, but I'm more likely to pay full retail price than a subsidized price so I can keep my contract with unlimited data. My question is where folks would recommend or expect an unlocked N3 to appear? Best Buy? Amazon? Not sure that all N3 models are the same since each North American carrier has different LTE bands, the models (e.g. the LTE radios) are likely to be different, even though the 2g3g radio are likely controllable via software.

I can pay full price at a VzW store or online, but its likely to come pre-bloated from VzW. Hoping for an VzW compatible phone without the bloat that I can just "activate" on my existing account.

Perhaps some GS4 or Note 2 users already did similar things in the past.

Thanks for the 4-1-1

i don't believe you can use an unlocked phone on verizon.....

 

[buzzy3970]

i don't believe you can use an unlocked phone on verizon.....

Per their agreement with the FCC all Verizon phones have to be unlocked.

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[jetguat]

Per their agreement with the FCC all Verizon phones have to be unlocked.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using AC Forums mobile app

Is this some recent FCC agreement? Not sure I heard they are required to have unlocked phones. As it just vzw? Or have other carriers been forced to do the same.

 

[Raptor007]

There isn't an option for "unlocked" phones on Verizon in the sense that you can buy any GSM based "unlocked" phone from anywhere and take it to any GSM carrier. Verizon has a database of the device ID serial #'s that they will (and Sprint) will allow on their networks, you can't even take each other's phones to the other network though you should be able to.

As for the FCC thing I am not 100% sure what Buzzy3970 is pointing at, it could be tied to the 700Mhz LTE spectrum rules, but I just don't recall it being part of it. I know they had to agree to allow other devices onto that Spectrum, and couldn't block apps/services, etc (paid a $1.25 million fine over the tethering bit). buzzy3970 will have to elaborate.

 

[karsdroid]

There isn't an option for "unlocked" phones on Verizon in the sense that you can buy any GSM based "unlocked" phone from anywhere and take it to any GSM carrier. Verizon has a database of the device ID serial #'s that they will (and Sprint) will allow on their networks, you can't even take each other's phones to the other network though you should be able to.

As for the FCC thing I am not 100% sure what Buzzy3970 is pointing at, it could be tied to the 700Mhz LTE spectrum rules, but I just don't recall it being part of it. I know they had to agree to allow other devices onto that Spectrum, and couldn't block apps/services, etc (paid a $1.25 million fine over the tethering bit). buzzy3970 will have to elaborate.

that's what i did indeed mean......you can't buy and unlocked phone from amazon and stick in your verizon sim. you have to get a verizon phone. otherwise i would have gotten the original note that i longed for but was only on att a long long time ago.

 

[jetguat]

True you cant just buy any phone and expect the LTE to work. There are different bands and they are not close enough to be software controllable. Like a 700Mhz band versus something up in the 2.5GHz. I could be wrong but I thought I saw the note 2 on both the amazon and best buy sites for full retail price and they hand the vzw SKU, they also sold the att or sprint etc which are each their own SKU.

Either way does not seem that on this forum that something done. I was hoping and I will look more but perhaps a pipe dream

 

[buzzy3970]

There isn't an option for "unlocked" phones on Verizon in the sense that you can buy any GSM based "unlocked" phone from anywhere and take it to any GSM carrier. Verizon has a database of the device ID serial #'s that they will (and Sprint) will allow on their networks, you can't even take each other's phones to the other network though you should be able to.

As for the FCC thing I am not 100% sure what Buzzy3970 is pointing at, it could be tied to the 700Mhz LTE spectrum rules, but I just don't recall it being part of it. I know they had to agree to allow other devices onto that Spectrum, and couldn't block apps/services, etc (paid a $1.25 million fine over the tethering bit). buzzy3970 will have to elaborate.

Yes my comment was in regards to the spectrum rule although I didn't notice the op was speaking on bringing a non verizon phone to verizon. My apologies I thought they were asking about verizon phones being unlocked.

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[jetguat]

Yes my comment was in regards to the spectrum rule although I didn't notice the op was speaking on bringing a non verizon phone to verizon. My apologies I thought they were asking about verizon phones being unlocked.

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I was in fact talking about buying an unlocked vzw phone. I was under the impression the big stores (best buy, amazon, tiger direct, Walmart) sold not only unlocked phones, but also carrier specific unlocked phone. Swear I saw them when browsing around, peraphs I was mistaken

 

[ibcop]

I was in fact talking about buying an unlocked vzw phone. I was under the impression the big stores (best buy, amazon, tiger direct, Walmart) sold not only unlocked phones, but also carrier specific unlocked phone. Swear I saw them when browsing around, peraphs I was mistaken

Most of the devices you see as being "unlocked" are GSM based. When you buy a device room Verizon, it is essentially unlocked - meaning it can be used with a different SIM if say you are in the U. K., Germany, etc.

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[dpham00]

I can pay full price at a VzW store or online, but its likely to come pre-bloated from VzW. Hoping for an VzW compatible phone without the bloat that I can just "activate" on my existing account.

Unfortunately, I doubt that the Verizon compatible Note 3 would come without the bloatware regardless of where you buy if you want full compatibility with Verizon's network.




Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note II via Tapatalk 4

 

[iceman64]

My VzW Droid Bionic died about two weeks ago, when it inadvertently took a swim with me. Duh!
The wait for the Note 3 is difficult. I have an upgrade available, but I'm more likely to pay full retail price than a subsidized price so I can keep my contract with unlimited data. My question is where folks would recommend or expect an unlocked N3 to appear? Best Buy? Amazon? Not sure that all N3 models are the same since each North American carrier has different LTE bands, the models (e.g. the LTE radios) are likely to be different, even though the 2g3g radio are likely controllable via

I can pay full price at a VzW store or online, but its likely to come pre-bloated from VzW. Hoping for an VzW compatible phone without the bloat that I can just "activate" on my existing account.

Perhaps some GS4 or Note 2 users already did similar things in the past.

Thanks for the 4-1-1

You will be off waiting for the Verizon developer edition Note 3 but I don't know how long you can hold out..

 

[Raptor007]

LTE was supposed to be the one technology to rule them all until the many kings decided they still WOULDN'T work together.

 

[jetguat]

You will be off waiting for the Verizon developer edition Note 3 but I don't know how long you can hold out..

"off waiting.." Not sure I understand. Also never really hear of a VzW Dev. edition of anything. As to how long I can hold out. Its already gonna be difficult to wait until the GN3 comes out for real. My parents want to get off your plans, and unto my account, if that happens, I'll likely have little choice but to drop the unlimited data and just go with a bigger bucket share anything plan. And if I do that, I might as well use my upgrade and get the GSN3 for the reduced price. Otherwise.. I'll just pay retail price and keep unlimited.

 

[jetguat]

LTE was supposed to be the one technology to rule them all until the many kings decided they still WOULDN'T work together.

There are some technical complexities actually. As I'm in the telecom infrastructure business, specifically LTE, and the company I work for, provides major portions of the LTE infrastructure for ATT, VzW, and now Sprint. I do know something about it. ATT with its GSM, EDGE, GPRS, and varieties of HSDPA. Sprint with is CDMA 1x, EVDO rev0/reva, WiMax. VzW with its 1x, eHRPD. All of them with different LTE band classes. "roaming" between them is quite complicated, and particularly between Vzw/Sprint and ATT since they are completely different 2G/3G technologies. There isnt to much (but politics perhaps) in stopping roaming between Sprint/VzW though. BTW it is true VzW has the best network. Higher prices true. and in some regions another carrier might be better, but on the whole.. vzw is 1 to 1.5 years ahead of ATT in LTE deployment and optimization, and they arent resting for ATT to catch up...

 

[iceman64]

"off waiting.." Not sure I understand. Also never really hear of a VzW Dev. edition of anything. As to how long I can hold out. Its already gonna be difficult to wait until the GN3 comes out for real. My parents want to get off your plans, and unto my account, if that happens, I'll likely have little choice but to drop the unlimited data and just go with a bigger bucket share anything plan. And if I do that, I might as well use my upgrade and get the GSN3 for the reduced price. Otherwise.. I'll just pay retail price and keep unlimited.

You said you never hear of the Developer Edition anything, since the galaxy s3 samsung come out with a Developer Edition s3 s4 and the note 2. It come with an unlock bootloader check this out

http://www.droid-life.com/2012/12/1...er-edition-goes-up-thanks-for-the-wait-sammy/

The reason I ask can you wait, Samsung releases these developer edition for vzw. But you can't purchase from vzw, you have to order from Samsung when they release them. Plus Samsung releases these a few weeks after the original's are released. You have to paid full retail for this phone no 2 year agreement.

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[jetguat]

Thanks for the info iceman. Checked around the sammy website, seems like while that might have been available, but not much info. Did the same type of search on the G4. It comes up, has a model number but no apparent way to order, and little info. What I'm wondering if is these "developer" phones (again one specific for Vzw) are simply phone with unlocked bootloaders, or if its more of a stock ROM without all the VzW bloatware and additional mods (like the redirection/disabling of the mobile hotspot)

 

[iceman64]

Thanks for the info iceman. Checked around the sammy website, seems like while that might have been available, but not much info. Did the same type of search on the G4. It comes up, has a model number but no apparent way to order, and little info. What I'm wondering if is these "developer" phones (again one specific for Vzw) are simply phone with unlocked bootloaders, or if its more of a stock ROM without all the VzW bloatware and additional mods (like the redirection/disabling of the mobile hotspot)

Not a problem the developed edition comes with an unlock bootloader so it will be easy to root your phone. I do not know if it comes with a stock rom but once you root your phone the sky is the limit. I think samsung only comes out with the DE for vzw. I'm prerry sure they will release the DE for the Note 3, I hope this help you. As far as disabling the hotspot once you root it will b disable. On the other hand you do not need to root your phone for this, there's an app call Foxfi tht unlock my hotspot in my note 2. Plus my phone does not need to be rooted.

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...tore/apps/details?id=com.foxfi&token=VV1hn3cO

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[jetguat]

Not a problem the developed edition comes with an unlock bootloader so it will be easy to root your phone. I do not know if it comes with a stock rom but once you root your phone the sky is the limit. I think samsung only comes out with the DE for vzw. I'm prerry sure they will release the DE for the Note 3, I hope this help you. As far as disabling the hotspot once you root it will b disable. On the other hand you do not need to root your phone for this, there's an app call Foxfi tht unlock my hotspot in my note 2. Plus my phone does not need to be rooted.

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...tore/apps/details?id=com.foxfi&token=KL_TEfYz

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You like paid the one-time fee for FoxFi pro or whatever right? A release or so ago, they started to throttle users also, forcing them to reconnect in order to keep the wifi connections up. I suppose $7ish one time is better than paying big red $20 p/month for mobile hotspot (if you are an unlimited data user)

 

[iceman64]

You like paid the one-time fee for FoxFi pro or whatever right? A release or so ago, they started to throttle users also, forcing them to reconnect in order to keep the wifi connections up. I suppose $7ish one time is better than paying big red $20 p/month for mobile hotspot (if you are an unlimited data user)

Yes I paid the one time fee I think bac avout 2 years ago it was around $6 but now its $7. Yes I have unlimited been with vzw 2003 or 2004. But they dont throttle down the speed is almost the same every time I get on!!!!

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